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A unique Hapa identity

Who are we?

At this point in time, this question easily qualifies as the definition of our very existence. Every Hapa will ask themselves the question, and I'm sure every Hapa reading this has already asked it many times. What a certain group or individual *is* is called their identity. Identity defines people, families, cities, ethnicities, nations and entire civilizations - it is very powerful. For most people, racial and ethnic identity are not issues, because they are not mixed - they look like their parents, and likely many of their friends. But for the mixed, racial and ethnic identity are things such a person always holds in question, for obvious reasons. They don't look like their parents, and likely none of their friends.

Perhaps in order to answer the question, the opposite must be asked - Who are we not?

This question is a bit easier to answer. The two groups that immediately come to mind are Whites and Asians, because they are the two groups of which we are the mongrelized offspring off. It can be easy or comforting, despite terribly ignorant, to believe that we belong to either of these groups or both of them. A Hapa may pass as White, or he may pass as Asian, or both, or neither. But these are merely perceptions - just the way people see us. But the reality is much different. The reality is that these two groups to which we owe our origins to are just that, our origins, they do not constitute who we are.

Us Hapas are a different kind of people, we aren't like the purebreds. A pure White, for example, must be born from two other pure Whites. This doesn't apply to us. Hapas are born from a pure White and a pure Asian, or two other Hapas. Perhaps the most prominent, though detrimental, way we are different is that because of our split, mixed and divided heritage, we do not inherit a racial and ethnic identity of our own.

This lack of identity is something made further evident by our constant asking of the question "Who are we?". As stated earlier, a Hapa may try to find his identity in either the White or Asian races, but reality shows that the proposition that our identity lies in these groups is a fallacy. So then this leads to the conclusion that our identity must be nil - that we are nobody. This harsh reality, despite being hard and uncomfortable, is the undeniable truth.

But being nobody is not an imperative reality that cannot be changed. We can change it by finding a new identity, an identity of our own. Since our identity does not lie with the Whites or the Asians, or their groups and societies that we cannot ever be a part of, where does it lie? Where must the Hapa search for something that is so fundamentally human, and how far is it? The answer is not far. In fact, a Hapa need not travel at all to find it, for what is sought is right here. Our identity lies with each other, our fellow Hapas, with whom we share our appearance, our genetics, our struggles, and so many other things.

But these things alone will not form an identity, they are merely the foundations of one. It is up to us to build upon these foundations a new Hapa identity, one that is uniquely Hapa, and distinct from the White and Asian identities to which it owes its origins. From these foundations, in order to truly and finally have an identity, we must construct our own race and ethnicity, and when we do, our doing so will be directly in defiance to the miscegenation and destruction that produced us and robbed us of identity in the first place. Our struggle and eventual triumph will show the world that us Hapas are not Whites, Asians, nobody, or genetic trash, but that we are Hapas.

But the task to construct our own uniquely Eurasian/Hapa identity will not be not an easy one, and it is not one that can be completed overnight. It will take dedication, sacrifice and struggle. But to dedicate, sacrifice and struggle for a cause so much greater than ourselves is not to dedicate, sacrifice and struggle in vain. The end goal is nothing short of the establishment of the Hapa race and ethnicity, and a unique culture and identity for it. While this may seem ambitious, it will pay off tremendously not only for us, but for every Hapa in history and every Hapa yet to be born. What was robbed of us long ago we will reclaim and in doing so reclaim our humanity. For this cause, because it is a cause so great, I am willing to dedicate, sacrifice and struggle, for living without the things I would do so for, I could not consider living, but just being alive.

Right now, such a goal is a long way away. At this point in time, we all should concern ourselves with networking with our fellow Hapas - building online communities and communicating with other Hapas that share this ideal, and are willing to share their struggles. Even small things like this are initiatives to something much greater than ourselves, as they are initiatives to forge an identity for the Hapa people, so that some day, generations of Hapas to come will no longer have to ask themselves "Who am I", because they will know who they are - "I am a Hapa".